Banking

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Nigerian government has become dependent on central-bank borrowing and will struggle to wean itself off the copious money printing that has raised concerns about the health of Africa’s largest economy, according to market observers. After revenue collapsed during the oil shock of 2015, Africa’s biggest crude producer turned to the central bank, borrowing about a third of its debt from the apex lender to cover a budget deficit…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to obtain all the necessary approvals required to start the operations of a proposed commodities exchange within the next 90 days, Governor Godwin Emefiele said on Thursday. “In the next 90 days we should be able to really begin the first launch and this will involve approvals on repositioning, restructuring, setting up bureaus, board structures, board committees, governance committees,” Emefiele said at a briefing…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa’s only female banking boss, Basani Maluleke, quit unexpectedly as chief executive officer of African Bank Holdings Ltd. after only three years in the job. Maluleke, also the first Black woman to lead a major lender in South Africa, will leave on April 30 “to pursue other career opportunities,” the company said in a statement Monday. Chief Financial Officer Gustav Raubenheimer will take over as acting CEO. South Africa’s financial…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Some of the world’s biggest banks are urging a U.S. judge not to immediately terminate Libor after a group of borrowers filed suit claiming the benchmark was the work of a “price-fixing cartel.” Defendants in the case, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG, said in a November filing that an injunction abruptly ending the London interbank offered rate would wreak havoc on…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — A Bank of England rate cut next month is starting to look like an attractive outside bet. A third national lock-down in the U.K. is the overwhelmingly positive sentiment on the vaccine rollout and threatening to drag the economy into a double-dip recession. As a result, expectations are rising the BOE will ease policy at its Feb. 4 meeting. The widely held view that support is likely to come…